Juan A. Gaitán

Juan A. Gaitán, the curator of the coming Berlin Biennale will begin his lecture-presentation by contextualizing the recent history of the Berlin Biennale, its international relevance and comprehensive impact on the cultural life of Berlin. Further, elaborating on its 8th edition to be held in Spring 2014, he will introduce the beginnings of his curatorial research as well as the artistic team he has invited. In his edition, Gaitán seeks to treat Berlin as a subjective microcosm, tracing its globality and mercantile linkages in the late 19th – early 20th centuries as well as its journey from empire to nation-state. The circulating figures within the formation of Modernity will be interrogated through the contributions of individuals such as Alexander von Humboldt and his scientific explorations across the Americas.

Gaitán (Canada/Colombia), born 1973, is an independent writer and curator, currently based in Mexico City and Berlin. He is trained as an artist and art historian at University of British Columbia and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver (Canada). Between January 2009 and December 2011, he was curator at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), and between September 2011 and June 2012 adjunct professor in the Curatorial Practice Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco (USA). During the 2006 – 2008 period, he was on the Board of Directors of the Western Front Society, and worked as external curator at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in Vancouver. He presently is curator of the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, 2014

His writings have been published in several journals, including Afterall, The Exhibitionist, Fillip, and Mousse. His most recent exhibition, Material Information, spans three venues in Bergen (Norway), and looks for a renewed critical approach to the contemporary global distribution of labor from the perspective of arts and crafts. He is presently member of the acquisitions committee at FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunquerke (France).